A new Sorcerer fan

[Rod Phillips]

Hello Ron (and all),

After lurking around The Forge for a few days and re-reading some reviews of Sorcerer, I drove out to my FLGS on the day after Thanksgiving and bought the game and it's two supplements.

I am thrilled with my purchase! It's easily the most value-packed $50 I've spent on gaming in a long time. For the past few weeks I've read and re-read the books and am delighted with the game... both its premise and, most especially, its execution. I haven't been this enthused about a new RPG since Hubris Games' Story Engine.

I was especially impressed with Sorcerer & Sword... finally, a swords & sorcery RPG that actually resembles all those stories I have read and loved over the years! (Funny coincidence... over the past 6 months or so, I had been re-reading Moorcock's Elric stories and Lieber's Nehwon adventures as my "lunchtime reading" at work. S&Sword was the perfect complement!).

In my opinion, S&Sword provides a far better RPG platform for running an Elric-style setting than Chaosium has done over the past 20 years with five editions and countless supplements of their Elric/Stormbringer RPG (don't get me wrong, I have been a Chaosium fan since Runequest 1st Ed., but their Moorcock-based games have always missed the boat IMHO).

I'm really looking forward to introducing and playing the game with a few old friends over my upcoming holiday break from work. I'll be sure to post my impressions of actual play experience.

Congratulations Ron for producing such a classy, worthwhile gaming product.

Sincerely,
Rod Phillips

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Rod,

Wow. What can I say but, "Thanks!" Your reaction to the game is anything I could hope for. And with all respect to the Chaosium folks, as a veteran of the original Stormbringer game, I agree with you about their struggles with the Moorcock material. That's a whole GNS-based history-of-games discussion right there.

Have you seen the Actual Play links at the Sorcerer website? They provide quite a few insights into success and failure with the game.

Best,
Ron

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Rod,

Whoa, forgot to ask: If you would, please let me know which store you bought Sorcerer from. If they're carrying the game and its supplements, I need to put'em on my Retailer Locator right away.

Best,
Ron

[Rod Phillips]

Hi Ron,

No problem... I should have plugged them earlier!

I purchased Sorcerer and both supplements at: The Guardtower, 3600 Trabue Road, Columbus, Ohio. Their phone number is (614) 488-4311.

A fine game store that has been here since about 1987. They have always maintained a nice, deep selection of RPGs.

best wishes,
Rod

PS: If you get a chance, hop over to Hubris Games' website and take a look at my "plug-in" (mini-supplement) for the Story Engine RPG called "Retro Rockets". It's available as a free PDF download. I'd love to get some feedback from you and the other worthies here at The Forge. I have been considering expanding it out to a full game in its own right with a new title and rules system (strictly on a small-potatoes, self-publishing basis anyway).

[Ron Edwards]

Ah-ha! Yes, that's a good store - already on the Locator, actually.

That leads me to call for ...

More store references, people! I'm especially interested in stores in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.K., Scandinavia, and France. Check the Retailer Locator page first, though, so you don't send me duplicates.

Best,
Ron

P.S. Thanks for the Story Engine ref, Rod - I'll check it out.

[Blake Hutchins]

An aside:  I LOVE Retrorockets, Rod.  It's an awesome example of what can be done with Story Engine, but at the same time, I'd be interested in what you came up with for your own system.

Best,

Blake

[Rod Phillips]

Thanks Blake!
I'm really glad you liked it... it was a true labor of love for the material.

I'll post more about the stand-alone game in the Indie Games Design forum as it coalesces. I've been privately excited about its progress for the past few months, but my enthusiasm for it has grown since "discovering" the boards here on The Forge and reading games like "Sorcerer" and "Dust Devils" over the past few weeks. They have given me a lot of inspiration and new ideas and angles of approach to wrap my head around when writing and playing RPGs. It's been very energizing.

I don't mean to sound like a cheerleader or anything, but I think that games like "Sorcerer", "Universalis", "Story Engine" and "Dust Devils" represent an emerging "fourth generation"* of RPGs and it's kind of exciting. It's interesting to me to observe the continuing evolution of the form. It keeps me excited to see what's coming next!

Sorry so long, and thanks again for the kind words. They're greatly appreciated!

-Ramblin' Rod


*Rod's utterly self-fabricated list of what he means when he calls something a "fourth generation" RPG is below. Thanks in advance for sticking with me this far, O tolerant one.

1. First Generation (Hoary old wargames that crawled on to the beach)
- D&D, AD&D, T&T, V&V, F&F (OK, I made that one up), Traveller

2. Second Generation (same as the first, but cranked up to "11" and with a skills-based system)
- anything by FGU (Space Opera, Aftermath, Bushido, etc), Top Secret, Runequest, Champions, GURPS

3. Third Generation ("Episode III: License of the Meta-Plot" and the first stirrings of narrativism)
- Ghostbusters, Star Wars d6, Marvel Super Heroes, DC Heroes, Torg, James Bond 007, any Star Trek RPG, any White Wolf game

4. Fourth Generation (Standing upright and throwing a bone into the sky...?)
- Sorcerer, Universalis, Story Engine, Dust Devils, Saga Stystem (Marvel SH and Dragonlance)